WORD PLAYS IN THE HEADLINES OF THE BRITISH PRESS AND A MIX'N' MATCH GAME FOR ADVANCED LEARNERS OF ENGLISH AS A FOREIGN LANGUAJE

Authors

  • J. T. Roberts

Keywords:

Headlines (in British newspapers), Word-Play, Culture, Foreign Learner of English, Game (matching headlines with texts)

Abstract

Playing with words is such a common and natural pastime in natively English-speaking societies that English speakers can easily take it for granted and thus fail to register its omnipresente as something worthy of particular attention. When one does become conscious of its extent. however, one begint to realise that the Anglo-Saron (and French) preoccupation with word-play is probably rather exceptional. Furthermore, it becomes evident that word-pay is inseparable from culture. In particular, even the reading of the British press, which indulges constantly in word-play, can be seen to present formidable obstacles to the foreign learner of English, witless that learner is culturality-aware and informed of significant events in Britain. Here, an attempt is made to explain the mechanism of certain types of word-plays, and a problem-solving, consciousness-raising 'game' for advanced students, based on word-plays in the headlines of British newspapers, is described. The paper open with a corrective examination of the pun, the term “pun” being frequently used too broadly by English-speakers to designate any and al1 form of word-play.

Author Biography

J. T. Roberts

Department of Language and Linguistics University of Essex

Issue

Section

Artículos